


up in the sky

by turquoiserainlilies



Series: Heir To The Sky [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, basically a lot of missing scenes but also something different, i wanted to fix tlj and to do that i needed to start with tfa, most of them are character centric and this one is about poe!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 04:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turquoiserainlilies/pseuds/turquoiserainlilies
Summary: Poe was barely eighteen when he first joined in the New Republic navy. With his family and skills, he quickly earned a reputation as a golden boy. The Resistance was a different world. Nobody cared if his parents were so-called rebellion royalty. Poe had to earn his place up in the sky, just like everybody else.It took years for the name Poe Dameron to mean something.It took a single moment for it to mean nothing at all.





	up in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my self-indulgent Heir To The Sky verse, where Poe is a hero. Rose is a nobody. Finn is a royal. Rey is a Skywalker. Sort of.

Luke Skywalker has vanished. He left without a trace, save for his lightsaber.  Rumored to be in the hands of a pirate queen, the lightsaber can reveal Luke’s location, but only in the hands of his true successor .

In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has  been destroyed .

With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy.

* * *

 

Poe woke up in darkness. His arm  was twisted . His wounds felt fresh, burning in the sand-filled air. His legs weren’t responding to his brain. His back ached, as if a thousand pounds of steel  were pressed against his spine. His brain was singing a buzzing song, like static from a broken radio. His jacket was gone.

Still, he got up.

He felt around his neck, and exhaled with relief at the familiar weight of his mother’s ring.

He looked around. The hills of sand told him he somehow made it back down to Jakku. He looked up at the sky;  hauntingly empty despite the billions of stars. The  Finalizer was gone. And so was his rescuer.

Poe flopped back onto the sand dune. He allowed himself a mere five seconds of wallowing, then picked himself back up.

It took him the rest of the night to find civilization. With a stroke of luck, he found a New Republic id card in his pants pocket, and a couple hundred credits to get him a ride.

When the shuttle rocket dropped him off at Republic City, he called his mother.

She picked up before he  was prepared to speak.  Though Poe knew it wasn’t  technically possible, he could almost hear Yavin 4 through the comlink: the winds blowing through the jungles, the rustle of the Massassi trees, the chirps of the Whisper bird .

“The general’s in a meeting,” Poe informed his mother, after all the pleasantries and the ‘ thank-Force-you’re-alive ’s have  been exchanged . “I’ll see her after the Senate hearing.”

The former Lieutenant Shara Bey sighed  heavily .

“Those old Centrist crones still won’t budge, huh.”

Poe shook his head. “This is General  Leia Organa . After all her family did for the galaxy, how could they not believe her?”

His mother paused for a slight moment. “Still hung up on what her family did  to the galaxy, I’m afraid.”

The silence was heavy; it spread across worlds.

“She has time,” his mother said  convincingly . “There’s still ways to go.  You have time. There’s more to life than the mission, Poe.  Maybe you should take some time off.”

“Mom.”

“Are you coming back for Day of the Eclipse?

Poe sighed. He ran a hand across his face.  He remembered the year before, when he called her to tell her he won’t be home for the holidays, moments before he infiltrated a Star Destroyer for reconnaissance . They both already knew the answer, so he did not say it aloud.

“Be safe,” his mother said.

He chuckled. “I always am.”

Somehow, Poe felt more homesick after he hung up the phone. He rested for a minute, and then made his way across Republic Space Station into the city. It was a long day, but there was still the debriefing.

General Leia Organa lived through the death of her parents, the genocide of her homeworld, and a war against the evil Empire . Even still, the universe wasn’t done with her.  After the Galactic Civil war, there were the long years of clearing the Empire from all corners of the universe; the hard work of building the New Republic; the scandal of her parentage that rattled the entire galaxy .

Then, there was her son’s betrayal.

In Poe’s opinion, the Force owed her more than a few good nights’ rest.

Yet here she was, taking her dinner break—fifteen minutes between Senate hearings—in the hanging gardens .  The gardens were a nice, secluded getaway from the urban center of Republic City, and a perfect place for a private chat .

As Poe recounted his tale, a myriad of emotions flashed across her eyes. By the time Poe finished, only fatigued remained.

“That lightsaber, still causing trouble,” she murmured, shaking her head. “After all this time.”

“General,” Poe said, his voice almost wavering.  “I  was captured by the First Order forces, I  was rescued by an  incredibly brave man—he defected from the Stormtroopers, can you believe that?—but I…”

_ I let them get the information _ , he didn’t say.

_ I saw your son, _ he didn’t say.

_ I failed you _ , he didn’t say.

Yet, somehow, General Organa knew his thoughts. Even if she didn’t dedicate her life to studying the Force, Poe knew she picked up more than a few tricks from her brother.

“Let me make this clear, commander,” she said. “What you did, on Jakku, aboard that Star Destroyer, was nothing short of bravery. You completed the mission, Poe, that’s something to celebrate.”

She gave him a kind smile, not one of a Resistance leader, but the same one his mother would give him on his birthday, or after a particularly successful flight test . For a brief flicker of a moment, Poe wondered if General Organa used to give that same smile to her own son.

And then the moment was gone.

* * *

 

A few weeks ago, when General Organa summoned him to Resistance’s command centre, Poe was fixing up the comm unit on his beloved X-Wing with Jess .  When the announcement came over the radio ( Commander Poe Dameron to the command centre _ .  Commander Dameron _ ), Jess gave him a look that was half  you’re-in-trooouble and half  you-better-tell-me-later . Poe had no idea what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this.

_ Luke Skywalker. _

Then came the missions that took the Black Squadron all across the galaxy.  Poe always knew he was fortunate: two happy, good,  living parents; a squadron of friends who bordered on family; a superior who inspired both respect and faith .  But as he flew across First Order airspace,  barely missing death half a dozen times, Poe felt his luck  slowly draining away .

Maybe that was why, at the end of the long road, he requested to go to Jakku alone. No backup. No squadron. If he failed, he would only fail himself.

Jess was  so close to slapping him when he told her. Snap didn’t argue, only shook his head. Karé straight up refused to talk to him until the day of theflight. That was fine. They could be angry, disappointed, or bitter,  just as long as they were  alive .

He went to Jakku. Alone.

He saw Lor San Tekka.

He got captured.

He got rescued, but not before he let Kylo Ren into his head.

He made it back to D’Qar, but not before losing his rescuer. His savior.

Now, getting ready to  fly to Takodana, the rest of the Black Squadron were all smiles and laughter (they had one rule: no grudges pre-flight) .  He smiled and laughed along, but soon excused himself on the pretense of double checking his starfighter's repairs .

He sat in the cockpit of his  newly restored X-Wing, ignored BB-8’s inquiring beeps, and waited out the minutes until the signal to  fly .

* * *

 

Finn was alive. Finn was on D’Qar. Finn was wearing his jacket. Finn was hurting and pained and a thousand other things Poe wanted to help with, but there was no time.  Finn had to speak to General Organa, and soon Poe found himself back in the command centre, planning out another mission .

General Organa sat at the head of the bridge. Her fingers flew across the keypad as she barked out commands. Poe stood to her right, peering over a charted course to the Starkiller. Finn stood to her left, pointing out any details left out by the map. A  slightly small part of him felt almost  whole .  Despite the ugliness of the situation, he was here, ready and high on adrenaline and  alive , with two of his favourite people in the galaxy . 

“Forget the fancy name,” General Organa murmured below her breath. “It’s another Death Star.”

Lieutenant Connix walked up to them. “General,” she said. “Another message from the First Order.”

It was from General Hux, calling for her to meet the demands of the First Order, or else D’Qar, and the Resistance, will burn. As Hux laid out a deadline of six hours until the weapon’s deployment, the general was  utterly still.

Finn’s eyes widened in admiration. Poe leaned towards him. “You should see her at the Senate.”

When the message stopped, the general didn’t miss a beat. She told Connix to get their best slicer working the Starkiller’s mainframe. Then she called for General Ackbar and Chewbacca.

“Get the starfleet ready." She barked out orders to Ackbar as if she hadn't  just watched the most hateful man in the galaxy set a time for her death. “I want them airborn and ready within ten minutes.”

She turned to Poe.

“You reminded me of Han when we first met,” she said. “Head up in the sky,  overly attached to a junk of a ship.”

Poe raised a brow, unsure if he should  be insulted or not.

General Organa sighed. She glanced at Chewbacca. The Wookiee gave her a mournful howl and a nod.

“Chewbacca will take you to the surface on Falcon,” she said to Poe, and then nodded to Finn. “Take him.”

“General,” said Poe. Any commander saw the worth in having a man from the inside, but sending Finn back to his personal hell, even with his consent...

Poe reminded himself to think of the mission, but he couldn't help but to look over at Finn.

General Organa seemed to read his mind. She gave Poe a sad smile, followed by a strong nod.

“Disable the shield,” she said. ”Give our starfighters a chance.”

* * *

 

Ten minutes before he  was scheduled to  fly , there was a knock at Poe’s door. Jess, Snap, Iolo, Karé were on the other side. The first three immediately went for the speaker in his walls, a pre-flight playlist in hand. Karé pulled him aside for a moment.

“There’s a call for you at the command centre,” she whispered as she passed him half of her bofa treat. “From Yavin 4. Know anything about that?”

Poe sighed. He broke off a bite of chewy crust. “I don’t have time before I  fly .”

Karé shrugged. “I’m not the one you have to justify this to.”

They watched Jess and Iolo bicker over the controls of the speakers. Poe has the largest quarter out of the four of them.  Poe explained it was because he was a commander, even though it was  truly the result of the luck of a draw (“Of course,” Jess said, half  bitterly , when she heard) .  There was a vanity sound system, shaped like a Rebel Alliance X-Wing, in the walls, donated from the Corellia royal family .  Despite being a collection of the best pilots and mechanics in the Resistance, nobody in the Black Squadron managed to master the controls .

“She’s worried about you.”

“Karé,” Poe said, making it clear that this conversation was over.

“I don’t blame her,” Karé replied, not hearing the subtext.

“I’m not talking about this. Not ten minutes before flight.”

“You  barely escaped Jakku,” Karé went on. “You didn’t even have backup because you told us to stay behind.”

“Because it was too dangerous.”

“For us,  apparently ,” Karé scoffed. “But not for you?”

Poe sighed. He knew there was no arguing the point. It had always been like this, ever since he and Karé and Iolo met back in the New Republic navy. She was as likely to talk him out of a solo mission as he was of letting her come with him.

Nothing changed.

“I saw your new friend,” Karé said. “Finn, was it?”

Okay. Something changed.

“From what you said—and believe me, you’ve said a lot—it took a lot of effort for him to get you out of that Star Destroyer,” said Karé. “How’s he going to feel if you died  recklessly on a mission?”

Poe narrowed his eyes. Karé returned a wide smile,  just as the alert bells went off.

Karé wiped the grin off of her face. Jess, Iolo, and Snap broke their focus from the speakers. They turn to Poe,  expectantly .  Maybe it was the gravity of the mission,  maybe it was what Karé had  just said, but for once, Poe was out of inspirational speeches .

“Let’s get them back,” he said,  simply . “For the New Republic. For the galaxy. For the Resistance.”

“For the Resistance,” they echoed.

* * *

 

Poe was  barely eighteen when he first joined in the New Republic navy.  With two parents from the Rebel Alliance, born in the thick of the Galactic Civil War, and a ten-years-long flight record, he  quickly earned a reputation as a golden boy . He was even nicknamed the  rebellion’s royal brat by some envious pilot from a rival squadron. Poe had relished in the glory of it all, for a while.

Then the First Order rose. The New Republic wanted to do nothing, but Poe could not. He was at a crossroads, and it only took a meeting with General Leia Organa for him to choose a path.

The Resistance…the Resistance was a different world, and not  just because it  was headquartered outside of Hosnian Prime . On D'Qar, nobody cared if he was the top of his class at Republic City Flight Academy. Nobody cared if his parents were so-called  rebellion royalty . Poe had to earn his place up in the sky,  just like everybody else, and he was  just fine with that. That meant his status was not passed down from Shara Bey and Kes Dameron, not given to him by General Leia Organa. What respect he got, it was all his own.

It took years for the name  Poe Dameron to mean something.

It took a single moment for it to mean nothing at all.

Chewbacca took Finn and Poe down to the Starkiller as the sun orbiting the base was setting.  No , Poe reminded himself, not setting. It was being drained. The light dimmed,  slowly but  surely .  Whilst Chewbacca planted the explosives, Finn and Poe found Phasma and dragged her to the shield controls .

Poe should’ve known it was too easy. They were so close to getting away, when Phasma triggered the alarm bells, and a memory in both Finn and Poe’s minds.

Jakku. It all came back to Jakku.  There was so much wrong with this galaxy, but everything started to go wrong for Poe,  specifically _ for Poe _ , on Jakku .

It was  just another blaster shot, in another battle, taking down another Stormtrooper. Except it wasn’t  just another Stormtrooper, was it? Poe didn’t think he could ever think  just _ another Stormtrooper _ again.

“Slip,” he heard Finn say.

He heard a blaster shot in his mind.

He saw Finn line up his aimer, pointing it straight at Poe. Poe held up his hand, the one not pointing a blaster at Phasma, and chocked on his words. What he could even say? He was sorry? He didn’t know?

He  didn’t know. He  was sorry. Neither of those facts seemed to wash away the blankness in Finn’s eyes.  Eventually , Finn fired the blaster, punching a hole through Phasma’s chrome armour.

Poe stuttered out something incomprehensible. Finn said he had to go find Rey. 

Poe met up with the Blue and Red Squadron. Finn watched Han Solo fall into an abyss.

Poe ran the trenches of Starkiller Base, and won.

Finn fought against Kylo Ren, and lost.

* * *

 

Poe  officially met Rey at the medbay, a few days after Starkiller, when the post-battle adrenaline high crashed, and settled into the post-battle depression .  Poe usually swung by the med wing late at night, after long shifts of fixing up battle-torn starfighters in the hangar .  Rey usually came early in the day, spending the sunrise by Finn’s side before going off to prepare for her own mission . As a result, their paths rarely crossed, until now, when the Black Squadron forced Poe into a day off.

She was there when Poe walked in, sitting by Finn’s side with his hand in hers.  Poe watched them for a moment, remembering Finn when they planned the mission to Starkiller, how he wouldn’t speak more than two sentences without mentioning her name . He pressed down an ugly thing into the pit of his stomach, and dug out a smile befitting a New Republic Senator.

“I’m Poe,” he said.

“I’m Rey,” Rey said.

“Finn said—” they both started at once. The words then dissolved into laughter. Poe found it easier to smile from then on.

It was then that Poe noticed the jacket Rey was holding. Rey noticed that he noticed.

“I guess this belongs to you,” she said.

Poe shook his head. It was Finn’s now. No matter what he might think when he wakes up, Poe was never taking it back. He was never going to take something from Finn.

“When he wakes up,” Rey said, one hand still holding the jacket, the other holding onto Finn. “Can you be the one to tell him where I went? Tell him that I wished he could’ve gone with me, and that…” She paused; her eyes watery. “I hate to leave him, alone, but I promise to come back.”

Poe swallowed.  It was one thing to visit Finn in the medbay (in a matter that Jess called  obsessive  and Snap called  adorable ), but another to see him awake .

“I’m not sure if he’ll want to see me.”

Rey tilted her head.

“No.  Really ,” Poe insisted.  He didn’t know what Finn had told her, if it was Poe’s place to catch Rey up to speed, now that Finn could not, so all he could do was nothing, and feel horrible about every silent second that passed by .

Rey stared at him with wide brown eyes. She was much younger than him, but lacked the naivety that came at that age.

“He talked about you,” she said. “Back on the Falcon, on the way to Takodana, with…” She swallowed. “With Han. He said you were his friend, that he wished you two had been closer.”

Poe didn’t know what to say to that.  At the same time Finn and Rey were on the Falcon, Poe was heading towards the same planet from the other side of the galaxy, thinking the exact same thing .

Rey stood. She pressed the jacket into Poe’s hands. He ran his thumb across the wide rip down the back, where an identical scar must exist down Finn’s back. He scrunched up the warm leather in his fist, like it was an edge of a cliff he had  been thrown off of.

“Tell him what I said,” Rey told Poe, and left without giving him a chance to argue.

* * *

 

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Yes, I was careful.”

“No, he hasn’t woken up yet.”

Poe heard his mother sigh through the comlink. He pressed the device between his cheek and his shoulder as he fiddled with the speakers in his walls.

“He’ll be fine,” his mother assured.

Objectively , Poe didn’t doubt that. The Resistance medic droids had seen worse injuries. Finn was strong and brave; a fighter. There were no anomalies in his recovery thus far.  Yet, all the facts in the galaxy couldn’t suppress the wild jump in Poe’s chest whenever he thought of Finn in that bacta tank .

Poe had been quiet for a long time.  His mother changed the subject, like she always did when she worried Poe would overthink himself .

“You finally returned my calls,” she noted.

Poe smiled a faint smile, even if she couldn’t see it through the comlink. “Had some downtime.”

“ Really ?”

Poe would have  been offended by the disbelief, but he knew it  was justified . “I actually took an afternoon away from the hangar,” he said.

“Poe.”

“All the fumes from the engines were getting to my head,” he explained himself.

“Poe.”

“I had to catch up on some paperwork. And fix the speaker in my room.”

“Poe.”

“This is not a free day,” he argued, knowing what his mother was thinking. “This is me, choosing to do some work indoors. I’m not taking time off.”

“As long as you’re resting,” his mother said  amusingly .

There was a knock at his door.  Poe set his comlink to broadcast and walked over, rolling his eyes at his mother’s insistence, whilst smiling all the same .

The smile faltered when he opened the door, then returned in full strength when he recognized the man on the other side .

“Finn.”

Finn fidgeted with the sleeve of his jacket. His eyes  were fixated on the floor in front of him. He must be  just out of the medbay, fresh out of the bacta tank. Something in Poe’s chest settled as he took in the sight of him, being the very picture of a healthy man. His dark skin glowed warm in the soft corridor light.  The only sign of battle were the bandages across his torso, peeking out of his Resistance issued white tee, stained with salves and sweat and a little bit of blood .

Finn looked unsure, a little tired, and so fucking beautiful.

Poe waited for him to speak first.

“They let me leave,” he said, as if it wasn’t evident. His voice was almost light.

Poe cracked a smile, and held out a hand. Finn’s palm in his own, warm and solid, was everything Poe had dreamed about for weeks. The fact that Finn  chose to come to Poe’s quarters after his recovery was  just a zherry on top. He relished in the warmth of Finn’s grasp for a moment, until he remembered he was on call with his mother.

“Finn?” his mother’s teasing voice came through the comlink. “Is that the same Finn you never shut up—”

Poe rescued the comlink  just before she finished the sentence, and clicked it off broadcast .  Half-blushing, he gestured  wildly for Finn to take a seat somewhere, before pressing the device to his cheeks .

“He sounds nice,” his mother said, with an air of all-knowing to her. Poe flushed.

“I’ve got to go.”

“Be safe.”

Poe sighed. “I always am,” he whispered, and clicked off the comlink.

When he turned, he found Finn standing over his cabinet, overlooking the family photos (Shara and Poe, age six, after his first flight; his parents at Four Capital, celebrating Day of the Eclipse with the Organa family) and memorabilia (his father’s old Pathfinder crest; a keychain from the first planet Poe ran a Resistance mission on) . Seeing Finn ( Finn! ) in his room, looking at his life, made something inside of Poe crack. It was almost painful, but  strangely welcoming, like the pleasant burn of a hot tea.

“I’m sorry,” he heard himself say.

Finn didn’t look up.

_ Good job Dameron _ , he thought. Way to help the tension.

Finn ran his hand across the shelf, across an old Rebel Alliance helmet that sat on top. His mother’s engagement ring, a simple silver band, hung off of it.  Poe  vaguely remembered taking it off before Starkiller, not sure how the mission would end, not wanting it to  be lost in First Order space . Poe held his breath as Finn brushed his finger against the ring.

And then he moved on. His brows rose at the sight of the Corellian X-Wing speakers.

Poe wanted to explain himself.  It was excessive for a Resistance commander to own, but Karé insisted they keep it, and Snap had a lot of antique records, and Jess liked the challenge of working on it, and—

Finn clicked a sequence of buttons, flipped a switch, and music filled the room.

To think Poe thought he couldn’t be more in love.

Finn flinched at the sudden sound, but relaxed when he realized it wasn’t a warning bell. He stared at the speaker, then back at Poe.

“It’s okay,” Poe said.

“It’s music,” Finn said, sounding hesitant. Poe nodded  encouragingly , stepping up to him.

“Not very good music, but yeah.” Poe laughed.

The song was from one of Snap’s records, from the Old Republic.  It was over-reliant on bass beats, a little broken and static-filled, like sand  being poured out of a bag, but seeing Finn’s face light up, Poe was sure it was the best fucking song in the world .

Poe nodded along to the beat.

Finn watched at first, almost flabbergasted, until his hand started to twitch to the rhythm, an almost involuntary response .

And then Poe was bopping his head.

And then Finn was laughing.

“Finn—” Poe started a sentence, but didn’t know how to finish it.

Finn gave him a smile; a little sad, but also a little hopeful. An understanding passed between them that said,  not now and  okay .

They had a million things to say, a million things to fix, both in the galaxy and between themselves, but there was time for that later .

Now, Finn was alive, and Poe was all right. And they had music.

They were together.

They were good.

And  maybe , someday, they could be more.


End file.
